this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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this is just a mathematical reality of LEO satellites like this. They are hitting the thermosphere which causes drag and they need to constantly adjust their altitude to keep in place and not fall to the earth. Currently 5 years is all the fuel they can carry. If they were higher they would last longer but the network latency would be very bad so it's a tradeoff.
whether or not we need this LEO constellation idk but this isn't some big gotcha. Elon (and everybody else) would love to have longer LEO orbits but until there is some new tech this is what we've got.
The difference between an orbit that lasts 5 years and one that lasts a hundred is approximately 100-200km, the limit is quite sharp and actually quite tricky to get exactly right. That will cost you about a millisecond or two in latency tops. It is more likely that SpaceX is required to adhere to rules made by the FCC/FAA.
550km height is partly to ensure that they WILL deorbit in a reasonable time if failed or EOL. Which is important for such a huge number of (relatively cheap) satellites.